Business bustled on a sunny fall afternoon at Miriam’s cevichochos food stand on a northeast Minneapolis streetcorner. About a dozen customers bought a bowl, squeezing fresh lime and dusting aji chili powder and salt over the dish.
Cevichochos, a dish made by marinating Andean choco beans and vegetables in citrusy ceviche sauce, are a favorite street food in Ecuador, typically topped with crunchy snacks. Miriam, who is being identified by her first name only due to her immigration status, launched her small food stand three months ago.
Minnesota has had a stable Ecuadorian community for years, largely concentrated in northeast Minneapolis and neighboring Columbia Heights. But many more have immigrated to the state in recent years as deteriorating conditions in the South American country have sparked a mass exodus since 2022, with thousands fleeing gang violence and extortion.
At 11,921 cases, Ecuadorians have the largest number of pending cases at Fort Snelling Immigration Court, more than double the amount from second-placed Mexico, according to data compiled by Syracuse University. Among immigrants in Minnesota, Ecuadorians also have the most pending asylum cases as of 2024 at 1,920, according to the most recent data available.
Miriam came to the United States in 2022, arriving first in New York, home to the largest Ecuadorian community in the United States. She eventually made it to Minnesota, which she likes better.
“It’s relaxed here,” Miriam told Sahan Journal.
As President Donald Trump’s administration closes off avenues for immigration and ramps up mass deportation efforts, the prospects for Minnesota’s growing Ecuadorian community are uncertain. But those currently here say they’re happy for the opportunity to live and work in Minnesota, and new businesses are cropping up to serve them.
‘Hardworking people’
Galo Jamarillo, one of Miriam’s customers, moved to Minnesota 11 years ago, when the Ecuadorian community was small. Now, he said, it’s easy to find markets, bakeries and restaurants selling products and flavors from home.
“When I first came here, there were very few of us, but now there are quite a lot,” Jamarillo said. “I really like Minnesota.”
Near Miriam’s food stand, El Paraiso, a supermarket and restaurant serving the Ecuadorian community, opened this summer on Central Avenue.
Columbia Heights firefighter Bertha Orellana, one of the store’s three co-owners, and her partners saw a business opportunity to serve the surge in Ecuadorians.
“We wanted to make a place where people could find products from home,” Orellana said.
The market’s shelves are stocked with chocho beans, quinoa, manzanilla herbs and rice brands from the Andean nation. El Paraiso offers fruits common to Ecuador like the custardy chirimoya, tomate de arbol (tamarillo) and guanabana (soursop). The freezer is full of seafood, fruits, yuca, aji amarillo peppers and even guinea pig — a delicacy known as cuy in Ecuador.
They take requests from customers and try their best to import special-order products, Orellana said.
El Paraiso is one of several new markets aimed at the Ecuadorian community in the Twin Cities. In south Minneapolis, La Cuencanita Market and La Casita Ecuatoriana opened their doors recently.
The new markets all offer money wiring services, which are widely used.
“A lot of our customers have two jobs, and have people back in Ecuador that they are supporting,” Orellana said.
Orellana came to Minnesota from Cuenca, a city in southern Ecuador, in 2009. The community was fairly small then, she said.
“I love to be in Minnesota,” she said. “I’m glad I came here.”
Ecuadorian immigration to the United States exploded in the early 2020s. Conditions in the country deteriorated rapidly during the pandemic, and its economy struggled to recover. Criminal organizations from neighboring Colombia and Peru became more powerful in Ecuador, using its Pacific ports to ship cocaine to North America and Europe, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nonprofit organization.
People began fleeing en masse. Many journeyed through Central America and Mexico via a mix of long bus rides and treacherous hikes, including through the infamous Darien Gap in the Panamanian jungle.
In 2023, a record number of Ecuadorians were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, with more than 99,000 crossing the southern border. Many crossed illegally, and then promptly turned themselves into immigration officials. Former President Joe Biden’s administration allowed most to be paroled into the United States, meaning they were allowed to legally live in the country temporarily and put into removal proceedings.
While in those removal proceedings, many applied for immigration status that could allow them to stay longer or permanently, such as permanent residency or asylum. People who apply for those statues are typically eligible for a legal work permit.
Biden authorized a special family reunification program in late 2023 that allowed Ecuadorians who were in the United States lawfully to sponsor relatives for an immigrant visa. The Trump administration ended that program.
Vendors selling fruit on street corners became a common site in Minneapolis in 2023, an overwhelming number of them recent arrivals from Ecuador looking for a way to make ends meet. Selling sliced fruit and snacks on the street is common in much of Latin America.
“They’re really hardworking people; they’re not asking for free stuff,” Orellana said of the street vendors.
Immigration cases getting harder
For Ecuadorians who crossed into the United States and have cases before immigration court, prospects are limited, according to Minnesota immigration lawyer Graham Ojala-Barbour. Despite pushes from Congress and cities, including Columbia Heights, Minneapolis and St. Paul, a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program was never put in place for Ecuadorians. TPS is a humanitarian program that allows people to legally stay and work in the United States if their home countries are experiencing violent conflict or natural disasters.
That leaves asylum as one of the main options for Ecuadorians who want to stay longterm, but prospects are slim. Those seeking asylum are supposed to apply within a year of entering the United States and must demonstrate fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or affiliation. Most Ecuadorians are fleeing more generalized gang and criminal violence.
In September, a legal decision known as The Matter of H-A-A-V was issued, which allows immigration judges to dismiss asylum applications based on fear of criminal violence from the bench. That process sidesteps the entrenched practice of allowing applicants to argue their case for asylum at a court hearing.
“In the past, pretty much everyone would have a hearing if they applied for asylum,” Ojala-Barbour said. “It raises due process concerns, because at least some cases in which people are fleeing from gang violence could be legitimate asylum cases.”
Many Ecuadorians have work permits in the United States, and are not considered to be in the country illegally absent a final order of removal, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will still detain Ecuadorians and hold them if they technically crossed the border without permission.
“They are now saying that people who did not enter with a visa are not eligible for a bond,” Ojala-Barbour said.
That’s what happened to Kevin Murillo Lucero, an Augsburg University student who came from Ecuador as a minor and was in the process of applying for asylum. Despite having a work permit and active asylum case, Murillo was detained by ICE on Aug. 5, when immigration officers targeted another man in the same vehicle. He was held in Sherburne County jail for more than a month, before voluntarily leaving the United States, according to his attorney Evangeline Dhawan-Maloney.
Now back in Ecuador, Murillo plans to apply for a student visa so he can resume his studies at Augsburg, where he earned a scholarship, Dhawan-Maloney said. She’s hopeful he can return and that choosing to voluntarily depart will help his student visa application. Murillo was following a legal process, she said, and she believes the Trump administration’s actions contradict U.S. law.
“This is the result of an administration that has made very calculated choices to force lawful immigrants, people who are following a legal process, into just giving up and going home,” Dhawan-Maloney said.
Local Ecuadorians are wary of ICE activity, which U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said will increase in the Twin Cities in the near future.
“It’s easy to get profiled right now,” Orellana said.
Most recent arrivals in the United States want to buy themselves as much time here as possible, Ojala-Barbour said, adding that even if more cases are being cut short by immigration judges, others will last for years, possibly longer than the current administration.
“What’s happening now with Trump, it’s no good,” Jamarillo said. “The immigrants came here to work hard, they aren’t here to commit crimes.”
